Syndication including melody recognition and opt out

ABSTRACT

A syndication system facilitates rights management services between media content owners and media hosting services that elect to participate in the syndication system and mutually elect to participate with each other. The syndication system utilizes a content recognition system to identify hosted media content and ownership rights associated with the hosted content. By applying melody recognition, the content recognition system can identify compositions embodied in hosted media content even when these compositions do not precisely match any known sound recording. Thus, the content recognition system is beneficially able to detect, for example, recorded cover performances and recorded live performances embodied in hosted media content. Once identified, ownership information is determined and the syndication system can facilitate rights management policies associated with the content such as monetizing or blocking the protected content.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of Art

The invention generally relates to media sharing and more specificallyto enforcing ownership rights to media content.

2. Description of the Related Art

Generally, a “sound recording” refers to a particular musicalperformance stored on a tangible storage medium such as an optical disc(e.g., CD, DVD), magnetic disc or tape, solid state memory (e.g., memorycard) or other persistent, tangible storage medium. In the musicindustry, sound recordings are typically produced and distributed byrecord labels, i.e., by companies that scout, develop, and managerecording artists, and coordinate the marketing, promotion, production,manufacture, and distribution of sound recordings. These record labelstypically hold various rights under copyright law to the soundrecordings they produce, although other entities may also hold theserights. In some instances, two or more recording labels or otherentities may hold ownership rights to a single sound recording as thesound recording ownership may vary by country.

In contrast to a sound recording, a “composition” generally refers to anoriginal piece of music (i.e., a song) that is not limited to oneparticular sound recording that memorializes a performance of the piece.For example, for a given composition by a song writer, there may be astudio recording by the song writer, a recorded live performance, and arecorded cover performance by another artist, each of which would be adistinct sound recording. Ownership rights to a composition aretypically held by music publishers who collect royalties and distributethem to the songwriters, although other entities may also hold theserights. (In some cases, the music publisher is also the recordinglabel).

Most recording labels directly collect royalties on the use of theirsound recordings. By contrast, composers and music publishers typicallycollect royalties on the use of their compositions through thefacilities of a copyright collecting agency (or a “performance rightsorganization”), such ASCAP, BMI, SESAC. For international performances,international collecting societies are typically responsible forcollecting royalty payments on behalf of the rights holders. In someinstances, two or more publishers or other entities hold ownershiprights to a single composition. Furthermore, composition ownership mayvary by country.

Media hosting services that allow users to upload multimedia content(e.g., music content and video content) for mass viewing have becomeincreasingly popular in recent years. As the volume of hosted mediacontent continues to grow, the management of ownership rights pertainingto the hosted media content has become an increasingly challengingproblem for hosting services. For music content embedded in an audio orvideo file, for example, the songwriter, the publisher, and therecording label are just some of the different entities that may holdrights to the media content. For appropriate payments to be made tocopyright holders, media content must be correctly identified. However,unlike television and radio environments where the content is typicallyidentified prior to airing, media hosting services often handleuser-provided media content that may initially be unidentified. Manualidentification of such media content becomes onerous when media hostingsites receive thousands or millions of new media uploads every day, andtraditional automated mechanisms lack the robustness and scalabilityrequired for modern media hosting services. The identification problembecomes even more complex when media uploads include live performancesor cover performances that do not precisely match any sound recordingknown to the media hosting service, and their content is not identifiedin associated, uploaded, metadata. Thus, a method for identifying newsound recordings of known compositions is needed to facilitate accuratepayment of royalties to copyright holders.

SUMMARY

A syndication system facilitates rights management services betweenmutually participating media content owners and media hosting services.The syndication system utilizes a content recognition system thatdetermines ownership rights associated with media files uploaded to amedia hosting service. In addition to identifying previously known soundrecordings, the content recognition system also beneficially identifiescompositions (e.g. songs) that are embodied in recorded liveperformances or cover performances that do not precisely matchpreviously known sound recordings. Once the content recognition systemidentifies compositions and/or sound recordings, the content recognitionsystem can determine ownership information pertaining to thosecompositions and/or sound recordings.

To identify ownership information pertaining to a composition, afingerprinting module generates a melody fingerprint for an audio clip.The melody fingerprint represents a melody of the composition embodiedin the audio clip by extracting features that are invariant to changesin the key, instrumentation, artistic interpretation or performance, orrecording methods or artifacts. Thus, differences in the musicalperformance, recording, and processing do not substantially affect themelody fingerprint.

The content recognition system then queries a reference database for areference melody fingerprint matching the input melody fingerprint. Thereference database stores reference melody fingerprints of compositionsembodied in a set of reference sound recordings. Each reference melodyfingerprint in the reference database is associated with compositionownership information indicating at least one entity having ownershiprights to the composition embodied in the reference sound recording fromwhich the reference melody fingerprint was made. Responsive to finding areference melody fingerprint that matches the input melody fingerprintin the reference database, the syndication system determines a rightsmanagement policy associated with the reference compositioncorresponding to the matching melody fingerprint. The syndication systemthen provides instructions to the media hosting service for carrying outthe rights management policy associated with the reference composition.

To identify ownership pertaining to a sound recording, the contentrecognition system generates an audio fingerprint for the audio clip.Unlike the melody fingerprints discussed above, the audio fingerprintsare generally unique to a specific recording, and typically vary withdifferences in performance, recording, and processing, and thus can beused to distinguish between different recordings of the samecomposition. The content recognition system then queries the referencedatabase for a reference audio fingerprint that matches the audiofingerprint. Responsive to finding a matching reference audiofingerprint for the audio fingerprint in the reference database, thesyndication system determines a rights management policy associated withthe reference sound recording corresponding to the matching audiofingerprint. The syndication system then provides instructions to themedia hosting service for carrying out the rights management policyassociated with the reference sound recording.

The rights management policies may vary depending on the needs of thecontent owners. For example, the rights management policy may indicatethat the media hosting service should block access to the media filecontaining the audio clip. Alternatively, the rights management policymay indicate that the media hosting service should monetize the mediafile containing the audio clip. Under this option, the syndicationservice provides advertisements for placment together with the monetizedmedia file, and facilitates revenue sharing between the media hostingservice and the content owners. In other instances, the rightsmanagement policy may indicate that the hosting service shouldstatistically track usage of the media file containing the audio clip.

The features and advantages described in the specification are not allinclusive and, in particular, many additional features and advantageswill be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of thedrawings, specification, and claims. Moreover, it should be noted thatthe language used in the specification has been principally selected forreadability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selectedto delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1A illustrates an embodiment of a syndication system.

FIG. 1B illustrates an embodiment of a syndication system operating inconjunction with a participating media hosting service and aparticipating content owner.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process forgenerating an audio fingerprint reference database and a melodyfingerprint reference database.

FIG. 3 is an embodiment of a graphical interface displaying variousmetadata associated with a known composition.

FIG. 4 is an embodiment of a graphical interface displaying variousmetadata associated with a known sound recording.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process foridentifying ownership information pertaining to media content andgenerating claims on behalf of the owners.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process forimplementing an ownership policy associated with hosted media content.

FIG. 7 is an embodiment of a graphical interface displaying variousmetadata associated with a claim generated on behalf of a content owner.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process fordetermining participation preferences of content owners and mediahosting services.

FIG. 9 is an embodiment of a graphical interface for selectingpreferences for participation in a syndication system.

The figures depict various embodiments of the present invention forpurposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed withoutdeparting from the principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

A syndication system facilitates rights management between mutuallyparticipating media hosting services and content owners. Individualmedia hosting services and content owners can choose whether or not toparticipate in the syndication system. For those entities electing toparticipate in the syndication system and with each other, thesyndication system identifies content hosted by the participating mediahosting services using a content recognition system. Once media contentis identified, the syndication system determines rights managementpolicies associated with the identified content. Then the syndicationfacilitates rights management services between the media hostingservices and the content owners of the identified content in accordancewith the identified policy. Under various rights management policies,the rights management services may include, for example, instructing themedia hosting service to block the content, selecting advertisements forplacement with the hosted content and managing revenue sharing betweenthe media hosting service and the content owners, and/or tracking usageof the hosted content and providing tracked statistics to the contentowners.

The syndication system utilizes a content recognition system thatautomatically identifies sound recordings and compositions embedded inuser-provided content (e.g., video and/or audio files) uploaded to amedia hosting service. As used herein, a “sound recording” and a“composition” are each works that would be recognized as such undercopyright law. By automatically identifying both sound recordings andcompositions, the content recognition system is capable of detecting theuse of both master recordings of a composition (e.g., a studiorecording) released by a record label, and any other recordings of acomposition, such as cover performances, newly released versions,alternative versions (e.g., acoustic versions) or live performancefootage. Once media content is identified, the syndication system canassist the media hosting service in managing and monetizing ownershiprights on behalf of the content owners. Thus, for example, thesyndication system can instruct the media hosting service to block mediacontent on behalf of the owners, or the syndication system can assistthe media hosting service in monetizing the media content by providingtargeted advertisements for placement together with the media contentand distributing royalties to the content owners.

Automated detection of media content is beneficial, if not necessary,for large scale media rights hosting and management solutions becausemanual review of all uploaded media content is at best impractical.Furthermore, it is difficult or impossible for humans to remember theownership rights associated with all possible compositions or soundrecordings that may be uploaded to a media hosting service. Byautomating the detection of sound recordings and compositions in anefficient and scalable manner, the syndication system can minimize theamount of manual intervention required by rights holders. This automateddetection is particularly beneficial for high traffic media hostingservices which may receive thousands or millions of new user-providedmedia uploads every day. This results in increased efficiency in theoverall usage of copyrighted works and the payment of royalties for thesame, thereby benefiting the copyright holders of such recordings andcompositions.

System Architecture

FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a syndication system 100. Thesyndication system comprises a content recognition system 130 and asyndication server 180. The syndication system 100 is coupled (e.g.,over a network) to a plurality of content owner clients 170 (e.g.,content owner client 170-1, 170-2, . . . , 170-N) and a plurality ofmedia hosting services 110 (e.g., media hosting services 110-1, 110-2, .. . , 110-N). Each content owner can elect (e.g., via an interface onthe content owner client 170 provided by the syndication system 100)whether or not to generally participate in the syndication system 100,and if so, which specific media hosting services 110 to participatewith. Similarly, each media hosting service 110 can elect, using thesyndication system 100, whether or not to generally participate in thesyndication system 100, and if so, which specific content owners toparticipate with. For a participating media hosting service 110, thecontent recognition system 130 identifies media content hosted by themedia hosting service 110 and finds participating content owners havingownership rights associated with that media content. The syndicationserver 180 then interfaces with the participating media hosting service110 and the participating content owners (via clients 170) to facilitaterights management services between them.

FIG. 1B illustrates an embodiment of the syndication system operating inconjunction with a participating media hosting service 110 and a contentowner client 170. The clients communicate with the service 110 and thesyndication system 100 over a network (not shown). Conventional elementsare not necessarily shown in order to avoid obscuring the relevantaspects of this embodiment.

The media hosting service 110 is configured to enable users to upload,share, and view media content such as video and audio files. In oneembodiment, users interact with the media hosting service 110 via amedia hosting web site accessible by a web browser executing on a userclient 150. Using the user client 150, users can upload user-providedmedia 151 to the media hosting service 110 and/or view user-requestedmedia 153 hosted by the media hosting service 110 (e.g., via an onlineinterface facilitated over a network). The media hosting service 110utilizes the syndication system 100 to identify and facilitate rightsmanagement policies pertaining to the media content hosted by the mediahosting service 110. As illustrated, the syndication system 100 receivesan audio clip 141 from the media hosting service 110 and returns thecorresponding rights management information 145.

In one embodiment, the media hosting service 110 comprises an ingestserver 112, a media server 114, and a content database 120. Inalternative configurations, the media hosting service 110 may comprisedifferent or additional modules.

The ingest server 112 receives the user-provided media 151 (e.g., anaudio or video file) from the user client 150. The ingest server 112optionally performs audio and/or video processing on the user-providedmedia 151, for example, to encode the user-provided media 151 in astandardized format. Once uploaded, the user-provided media content 151is stored in the content database 120. Using the user client 150, a usercan request to view hosted media content previously stored in thecontent database 120. Upon request, the media server 114 streams theuser-requested media 153 from the content database 120 to the userclient 150 for viewing by a user.

The media hosting service 110 utilizes the content recognition system130 of the syndication system 100 to identify ownership rightspertaining to the media content hosted by the media hosting service 110.As illustrated, the content recognition system 130 receives an audioclip 141 from the media hosting service 110 and returns thecorresponding ownership information 143 utilized by the syndicationserver 180. The content recognition system 130 also enables contentowners (e.g., record labels and/or publishers) to provide ownershipmetadata 161 and reference recordings 163 via a content owner client170. The reference recordings 163 and ownership metadata 161 correspondto media content (e.g., sound recordings or compositions) for which thecontent owners seek enforcement of their ownership rights. The contentrecognition system 130 seeks to match the audio clips 141 to one or morereference sound recordings 163 and returns the corresponding ownershipinformation 143 when a match is found.

In one embodiment, the content recognition system 130 comprises aningest server 132, a melody fingerprinting module 134, an audiofingerprinting module 136, an indexing module 138, a matching module140, a melody ID reference database 142, an audio ID reference database144, and an ownership database 146. In alternative configurations, thecontent recognition system may comprise different or additional modules.

The ingest server 132 receives the reference recordings 163 andownership metadata 161 from the content owner client 170. The referencerecordings are sound recordings for which a record label or other entityhas ownership rights. Typically a publisher or other entity will alsohave ownership rights to a composition embodied in the sound recording.The reference recordings 163 may comprise an audio file encoded in anytype of audio codec (e.g., AAC, HE-AAC, MP3, FLAC, ALAC, OGG, WMA, andso forth), and may be an entire audio file (e.g., a recording of acomplete musical performance) or a portion of an audio file. The ingestserver 132 optionally performs audio processing on the referencerecording 163, for example, to encode the reference recording 163 in astandardized format. The ownership metadata 161 typically comprises atext-based file that stores identifying information related to thereference recording 163 and the content owners. The ownership metadata161 may be organized into various categories or fields such as, forexample, artist, title, genre, label, publisher, etc.

The ingest server 132 is also configured to receive audio clips 141 fromthe media hosting service 110. Like the reference recordings 163, theaudio clips 141 may comprise audio files encoded in any type of audiocodec, and may be entire audio files or portions of audio files.Alternatively, the audio clips 141 may comprise the audio portions ofvideo files (or portions of video files). In other embodiments, theaudio clip 141 may be a compressed representation (e.g., a fingerprint)of an audio clip rather than an actual audio file. The ingest server 132optionally performs audio processing on the audio clips 141, forexample, to encode the audio clips 141 in a standardized format or toextract the audio portions of video files.

The audio fingerprinting module 136 generates reference audiofingerprints (also referred to as “audio ID files”) for the referencesound recordings 163 provided by content owners. The audiofingerprinting module 136 is configured to generate audio fingerprintsthat uniquely represent a particular sound recording owned by a recordlabel or other entity. An audio fingerprint compactly represents theaudio characteristics of a reference sound recording 163 in a formatthat can be efficiently compared and matched to other audiofingerprints. The audio fingerprinting module 136 similarly generatesaudio fingerprints for audio clips 141 received from the media hostingservice 110 so that the audio fingerprints can be compared to thereference audio fingerprints.

The melody fingerprinting module 134 generates reference melodyfingerprints (also referred to as “melody ID files”) for reference soundrecordings provided by content owners. The melody fingerprints aredesigned to uniquely represent a composition (which may be embodied invarious studio recordings, live performance recordings, or coverperformances) based on the melody of the composition. A melodyfingerprint compactly represents the melodic characteristics of areference sound recording in a format that can be efficiently comparedand matched to other melody fingerprints. In contrast to an audiofingerprint, which uniquely represents a particular recording of aperformance, a melody fingerprint instead represents the melody of acomposition that is embodied in the performance, and does so in such away that variations in key, instrumentation, encoding formats, and otherperforming, recording, and processing variations do not substantiallyaffect the features of the melody fingerprint. Thus, a melodyfingerprint for a live performance of a particular composition willmatch a melody fingerprint for a studio recording of that composition,while the audio fingerprints for the live and studio performances willnot match. The melody fingerprinting module 134 similarly generatesmelody fingerprints for audio clips 141 received from the media hostingservice 110.

In one embodiment, the melody fingerprinting module 134 detects andcompactly represents a sequence of pitch intervals occurring betweendifferent time points in the audio clip 141. Melody fingerprinting usinga pitch interval representation is further described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/826,623 entitled “Intervalgram Representation ofAudio for Melody Recognition” to Richard Lyon, et al., the contents ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein. In one such embodiment, theaudio clip 141 is first processed to generate a Stabilized AuditoryImage (SAI). The SAI represents the audio clip 141 using an auditorymodel designed to simulate how the human auditory system processes andrepresents sound. Using the SAI, representative features of the audioclip 141 can be extracted that are characteristic of the audio featuresperceived by the human ear. For example, the perceived dominant musicaltones in the input audio clip 141 can be extracted at regular timeintervals throughout the input audio clip 141. These extracted tones arelargely independent of the particular instrumentation, recordingparameters, encoding, or processing used to produce the input audioclip. Each extracted tone can correspond to, for example, one of thetwelve notes in the musical scale. Alternatively, a finer scale may beused (e.g., 36 possible tones per octave instead of 12). Thus, the inputaudio clip 141 is reduced to a representation comprising a sequence ofthe perceivable tones occurring in the audio clip 141. In order toconvert the representation to one invariant to key, the sequence ofextracted tones is further processed to determine pitch intervals (e.g.,number of whole and or half-steps) between temporally consecutive tones.This sequence of pitch intervals forms a melody fingerprint that isinvariant to the musical key. Furthermore, the melody fingerprint issubstantially invariant to instrumentation, tempo changes, and otherperforming, recording, and processing differences. The melodyfingerprint representation allows the content recognition system to findreference recordings of compositions that are similar enough thatpresent copyright law may recognize them as embodying the samecompositions. Thus, for example, melody fingerprints can be used toaccurately match live performances and/or cover performances of acomposition to a different reference recording of the composition.

The indexing module 108 indexes reference audio fingerprints andreference melody fingerprints stored in the audio ID database 144 andthe melody ID database 142 respectively. A variety of different indexingschemes can be used, but generally, the indexing scheme is designed toimprove the efficiency of comparing and matching an input fingerprintfor an audio clip 141 against the reference fingerprints in thereference databases 142, 144. In one embodiment, the indexing module 138applies a locality sensitive hashing (LSH) bands indexing scheme. In LSHbands indexing, reference fingerprints in the reference data bases 142,144 are indexed by a set of unique fixed-length byte sequences (i.e.,“index keys”), which in one embodiment, are 4 bytes wide. For each indexkey (i.e., a unique 4-byte sequence), the LSH index stores pointers toall reference fingerprints in the reference databases 142, 144 thatcontain that particular byte sequence. Thus, for example, if referencefingerprints A, D, and X each include the 4-byte sequence {A5 B1 43 67},the LSH index stores pointers to the location of reference fingerprintsA, D, and X in the reference databases 142, 144 in association with theindex key {A5 B1 43 67}. The LSH index can be queried with an index keythat is obtained from a fingerprint of an input recording, and canreturn pointers to the fingerprints of each reference audio clip that isstored in the reference databases 142, 144 that contains that particularindex key. LSH bands indexing is just one example of an indexing schemefor indexing the reference fingerprints in the reference databases 142,144. In alternative embodiments, the indexing module 138 can indexreference fingerprints according to a different indexing scheme.

The matching module 140 compares audio and melody fingerprints (IDfiles) representing the audio clip 141 against reference audio andmelody fingerprints in the reference databases 142, 144 to determine areference sound recording and/or reference composition that best matchesthe audio clip 141. Based on the outcomes of the matches, differentactions will be taken.

First, an audio ID match indicates that the audio clip 141 matches oneof the reference sound recordings. An audio ID match also indicates thata composition embodied in the audio clip 141 matches a compositionembodied in the reference sound recording. Thus, for an audio ID match,the matching module 140 typically identifies both sound recording andcomposition ownership.

Second, a melody ID match, in the absence of an audio ID match,indicates that a composition embodied in the audio clip 141 matches acomposition embodied in at least one of the reference sound recordings,even though there is no sound recording match. An melody ID match mayoccur, for example, when the audio clip 141 embodies a cover performanceor live performance of a composition, while the reference databaseincludes a different recording (e.g., a studio recording) of thecomposition. Thus, for a melody ID match, in the absence of an audio IDmatch, the matching module typically identifies only the compositionownership, and does not identify any sound recording ownership.

The matching module 140 outputs ownership information 143 indicating theidentified entities having ownership rights to the audio clip 141, basedon the foregoing outcomes. This process is further described below withrespect to FIG. 5.

As discussed above, the matching module 140 determines matches betweenan input fingerprint for an audio clip 141 and one or more referencefingerprints in the reference databases 142, 144. To improve theefficiency of finding matches, the matching module 140 typicallyoperates in conjunction with the indexing module 138 to first locatecandidate reference fingerprints that are most likely to match thefingerprint for the audio clip 141. For example, in one embodiment thatutilizes LSH bands indexing, the indexing module 138 divides the inputfingerprint for audio clip 141 into a plurality of bands (e.g., 4 bytewide bands) that serve as a set of index keys. The indexing module 138uses these index keys to query an LSH bands index that returns a set ofpointers to candidate reference fingerprints in reference databases 142,144 that contain at least one of the index keys. Once a set of candidatereference fingerprints is identified, the matching module 140 calculatesa match metric between the input fingerprint and each one of thecandidate reference fingerprints. The match metric provides a figure ofmerit as to the quality of the match (e.g., a score, distance,probability, or other measure). For example, in one embodiment, thematch metric is a Euclidian distance or a Mahalanobis distance between afingerprint for the audio clip 141 and one or more candidate referencefingerprints in the reference databases 142, 144. A candidate referencefingerprint is considered to match the fingerprint for the input audioclip 141 when the calculated Euclidian or Mahalanobis distance betweenthe candidate reference fingerprint and the fingerprint for the audioclip 141 is less than a threshold.

In alternative embodiments, the indexing module 138 or matching module140 can receive a fingerprint representation of the audio clip 141 froma fingerprint source that is external to the content recognition system130 rather than from one of the fingerprinting modules 134, 136. Inthese embodiments, the fingerprinting modules 134, 136 are omitted, andthe ingest server 132 is configured to receive fingerprintsrepresentative of the audio clip 141 rather than the audio clip 141itself. For example, in one embodiment, the syndication system 100provides an instance of the fingerprinting modules 134, 136 toparticipating media hosting services. In this embodiment, thefingerprinting is performed by the individual media hosting services 110and the fingerprints are then provided to the syndication system 100 forprocessing. In another embodiment, a fingerprinting module differentthan the melody fingerprinting module 134 and the fingerprinting module136 is providing to participating media hosting services. Thisfingerprinting module allows the media hosting services 110 to generatesome intermediate compact representation of the hosted media files toprovide to the syndication system 100. The content recognition system130 may then derive the melody and audio fingerprints from thisintermediate representation.

The melody ID reference database 142 stores reference melodyfingerprints for a plurality of reference recordings, eachrepresentative of a particular composition. Similarly, the audio IDreference database 144 stores reference audio fingerprints for aplurality of reference recordings, each representative of a particularsound recording.

The ownership database 146 stores ownership metadata identifying theownership rights associated with the reference sound recording and/orcompositions embodied in the reference recordings 163. Examples ofownership metadata stored in the ownership database 146 will bedescribed in further detail below with reference to FIG. 3-4. Theownership metadata also includes ownership policies indicating how, ifat all, the content owner wants to enforce the rights associated withthe sound recording and/or composition (e.g., block, track, ormonetize). A process for handling different ownership policies will bedescribed in further detail below with reference to FIG. 6.

In another embodiment, audio and/or melody fingerprints generated foraudio clips 141 can be stored as additional reference fingerprints inthe melody ID reference database 142 and the audio ID reference database144. In this way, content owners can supplement the reference databases142, 144 by providing additional recordings of a particular compositionor additional instances of a particular sound recording.

The syndication server 180 receives ownership information 143 from thecontent recognition system 130 and provides rights managementinformation 145 to the media hosting service 110 to carry out rightsmanagement policies. In one embodiment the syndication server 180includes an advertisement database 122, an advertisement managementengine 118, and a rights management engine 116. In alternativeconfigurations, the media hosting service 110 may comprise different oradditional modules.

The rights management engine 116 manages and enforces ownership policiesassociated with media content, and provides rights managementinformation 145 to the media hosting service 110. For example, in oneembodiment, content owners can set an ownership policy associated with amedia item to “track,” “monetize,” or “block.” If the content ownerchooses to block content, the rights management information 145 includesinstructions for the media hosting service 110 to remove the contentfrom the content database 120 or otherwise prevent the user client 150from accessing the content. If a content owner chooses to monetize thecontent, the rights management information 145 includes advertisementsto be presented together with the user-requested media 153. The rightsmanagement engine 116 furthermore allocates royalties generated from theadvertisements between the media hosting service 110 and the contentowners, typically based on a licensing agreement between the mediahosting service 110 and the content owner. If a content owner chooses totrack content, the rights management information 145 includes aninstruction for the media hosting service 110 to provide statistics tothe syndication server 180 related to the content (e.g., number ofviews). The rights management engine 116 may then provide the trackedstatistics to the content owners.

The advertisement database 122 stores advertising content to bepresented along with the user-requested media 153 when the contentowners choose to monetize content. The advertising content may be in theform of images, videos, audio, text, hyperlinks, or a combination offormats. The advertisement management module 118 manages access toadvertising content stored in the advertisement database 122 anddetermines advertising content to associate with certain user-requestedmedia 153. In one embodiment, the advertisement management module 118selects advertisements based on the identity of the sound recordingand/or composition in the user-requested content 153 and/or theownership information associated with the content. For example, theadvertisement management module 118 may select an advertisement with ahyperlink to a web site belonging to a record label that has ownershiprights to a sound recording embodied in the user-requested media 153. Inother embodiments, the advertising content is selected based on otherfactors as well, such as user-specific information and preferences.

In alternative embodiments, one or more of the functions performed bythe advertisement management module 118, advertisement database 122, andrights management engine 116 may instead be performed by individualmedia hosting services 110 instead of by the syndication server 180.Thus, for example, in one embodiment, the syndication server 100 isresponsible only for ownership identification, and the media hostingservice 110 is responsible determining how to manage rights with thecontent owners. In another example embodiment, the syndication server100 is responsible for identifying rights management policies andallocating royalties, but the individual media hosting service 110 isresponsible for selecting and placing advertisements.

Each of the various components (alternatively, modules) of the mediahosting service 110 and the syndication system 100, e.g., ingest server112, media server 114, rights management engine 116, advertisementmanagement system 118, ingest server 132, melody fingerprinting module134, audio fingerprinting module 136, indexing module 138, and matchingmodule 140 are implemented as part of a server-class computer systemwith one or more computers comprising a CPU, memory, network interface,peripheral interfaces, and other well known components. The computersthemselves preferably run an operating system (e.g., LINUX), havegenerally high performance CPUs, 1 G or more of memory, and 100 G ormore of disk storage. Of course, other types of computers can be used,including personal and handheld computers when the database is not toobig for them, and it is expected that as more powerful computers aredeveloped in the future, they can be configured in accordance with theteachings here. Generally, the modules comprise computer-executableprogram instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium (e.g.,a hard disk). In operation, the computer-executable program instructionsare loaded into a memory and executed by one or more processors includedas part of the system. When configured to execute the various operationsdescribed herein, a general purpose computer becomes a particularcomputer, as understood by those of skill in the art, as the particularfunctions and data being stored by such a computer configure it in amanner different from its native capabilities as may be provided by itsunderlying operating system and hardware logic. An example of a mediahosting service 110 is, for example, the YOUTUBE™ website; other mediahosting systems are known as well, and can be adapted to operateaccording to the teachings disclosed herein. It will be understood thatthe named components of the media hosting service 110 and syndicationsystem 100 described herein represent one embodiment of the presentinvention, and other embodiments may include other or differently namedcomponents. In addition, other embodiments may lack components describedherein and/or distribute the described functionality among the modulesin a different manner. Additionally, the functionalities attributed tomore than one component can be incorporated into a single component.

Although only a single media hosting service 110 is illustrated in FIG.1B for clarity of description, the syndication system 100 may be adaptedfor use by any number of different media hosting services 110 asillustrated in FIG. 1A. In other alternative embodiments, the contentrecognition system 130 may be incorporated as a component of the mediahosting service 110. Furthermore, the media hosting service 110 mayinteract with many different user clients 150. Similarly, the contentrecognition system 130 may interact with any number of content ownerclients 170. Furthermore, a single client could be used as both a userclient 150 and a content owner client 170.

In one embodiment, the media hosting service 110 provides the audioclips 141 to the content recognition system 130 as part of the uploadflow of the media hosting service 110. Thus, in this embodiment,user-provided media content 151 is identified prior to, concurrentlywith, or shortly after being stored to the content database 120 and madeaccessible for download or viewing by other users, if permitted per theownership metadata found in the ownership rights database 146. Inanother embodiment, the content recognition system 130 is configured toperform legacy scanning of previously stored content in the contentdatabase 120. This embodiment allows, for example, the contentrecognition system 130 to identify ownership rights pertaining to hostedcontent that existed prior to the first use of the content recognitionsystem 130 (e.g., before media hosting service 110 began participatingwith the syndication system 100). Additionally, legacy scanning isuseful for updating ownership information and usage policies associatedwith a content database 120 as new reference sound recordings 163 andthe ever changing ownership metadata 161 become available to the contentrecognition system 130.

Operation and Use

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a process performed by the contentrecognition system 130 for generating the reference databases 142, 144,146. The content recognition system 130 receives 202 a reference soundrecording 163 and/or the ownership metadata 161 corresponding to thatsound recording (including desired ownership policies) from a contentowner via the content owner client 170. In some instances, only aportion of the reference sound recording 163 and/or ownership metadata161 is provided by a single content owner. For example, a publisher mayprovide only ownership metadata associated with a composition withoutproviding a reference sound recording. In other instances, a recordlabel may provide ownership information related to a sound recordingwithout identifying the publisher(s) having ownership rights to theunderlying composition. In yet other instances, a content owner mayindicate that it has only partial ownership to a composition (e.g., 50%ownership) without necessarily identifying the other entities having theremaining ownership rights. To assemble piecemeal information, thecontent recognition system 130 correlates 204 the received informationand combines the information into a set of entries, each correspondingto a single sound recording or composition. Furthermore, compositionentries may be linked to one or more sound recording entries that embodythe composition. The correlation is typically performed by matchingvarious metadata fields (e.g., song title, artist name, identificationnumbers, etc.) that are common to the partial information submissions.

The audio fingerprinting module 136 generates 206 a reference audiofingerprint for the reference sound recording and stores 208 thereference audio fingerprint in association with the sound recordingownership metadata. The melody fingerprinting module 134 generates 210 areference melody fingerprint representing the composition embodied inthe reference sound recording and stores 212 the reference melodyfingerprint in association with corresponding composition ownershipmetadata. Thus, the content recognition system 130 produces both areference audio fingerprint and a reference melody fingerprint for eachreference recording provided.

FIG. 3 is a graphical interface illustrating an example of an ownershipmetadata entry associated with a composition. Such a graphical interfacemay be available, for example, to an administrator of the contentrecognition system 130, the media hosting service 110, and or a contentowner. Alternatively, some or all of the metadata shown in FIG. 3 may beused only internally, and may therefore not be available for display ina graphical interface.

The ownership metadata is divided into a number of categories, eachcomprising different identifying fields. For example, in thisembodiment, the ownership metadata is categorized into metadata 302,ownership information 304, rights 306, related assets 308, and referencecontent 310 categories. The metadata category 302 provides variousfields identifying the composition including, for example, an identifierfield (e.g., CMS asset ID), Type (e.g., composition or sound recording),Provider (i.e., the entity that submitted the reference data), Source,Custom ID, Added (i.e., date/time of submission), ISWC, Title, Category,and Writers. As illustrated, some of the fields may be empty indicatingthat the information is presently still unknown or incomplete.

The ownership information category 304 identifies the entities havingownership rights to the composition, the countries where the ownershipapplies (because ownership may be different between differentcountries), and a percent or fraction of ownership if applicable(because in some countries, ownership may be split between more than oneentity). In the illustrated example, the ownership information indicatesthat “Publisher A” owns 66.66% of the composition in the United Statesand “Publisher B” owns 33.34% of the composition in the United States.

The rights category 306 indicates the ownership policies selected by thecontent owners (“Owner Policy”), if known, and the policy actually beingapplied by the hosting service (“Applied Policy”). As explained above,the policies can include, for example, monetize, track, or block. Therights category 306 includes a drop-down box 307 allowing a viewer toselect “Match Claim” (as selected in the illustration), or “Embed Claim”(not shown). When “Match Claim” is selected (as illustrated) theownership policies displayed are those selected and/or applied when amatching composition is detected. In the illustrated example, the ownershave selected to “Monetize (and track) if Location of the viewer is theUnited States” and the hosting service is applying the same policy. If,alternatively, “Embed Claim” is selected from the drop down box 307, theownership policies are displayed for a sound recording that embed thecomposition. This would allow, for example, a publisher to block usageeven if a label owning the sound recording chooses to track or monetize.

The related assets category 308 identifies other assets (e.g., soundrecordings) that embed the composition. In the illustrated example, therelated assets category identifies a sound recording (“Composition in AMajor”) that embodies the composition.

The reference content category 310 identifies reference recordings, ifany, provided by the content owners of the composition. Here, none ofthe publishers have provided a reference recording representative of thecomposition. However, the composition may still be linked to a referencerecording for the purpose of determining composition matches if thelocation of a reference recording for any of the related assets (e.g.,the related sound recording titled “Composition in A Major”) is known.The entry illustrated in FIG. 3 is just one example of a metadata entryfor a composition. In other embodiments, the entries can have differentcategories, fields, data, and organizational structures.

FIG. 4 is graphical interface illustrating an example of an ownershipmetadata entry associated with a reference sound recording. Similar tothe composition ownership metadata shown in FIG. 3, the sound recordingownership metadata may be used only internally, and may therefore not beavailable for display in a graphical interface. The sound recordingownership metadata is divided into a number of categories, eachcomprising different identifying fields. For example, in thisembodiment, the ownership metadata is categorized into metadata 402,ownership information 404, related assets 408, and reference content 410categories.

The metadata category 402 provides various information identifying thereference sound recording and includes many of the same fields as thecomposition metadata discussed above. Additionally, the metadatacategory 402 may include some fields specific to sound recordings suchas, for example, Genre, Label, Audio ISRC, UPC, and GRid.

The ownership information category 404 indicates one or more entitieshaving ownership rights to the sound recording. In this case, “Label A”owns the sound recording worldwide. The related assets category 408identifies other assets (e.g., compositions) that the sound recordingembodies. In the illustrated example, the sound recording embodies thecomposition, “Composition in A Major,” discussed above with respect toFIG. 3.

The reference content category 410 identifies one or more referencerecordings associated with the sound recording. In the illustratedembodiment, the owner (Label A) has provided two different referencerecordings that can be used by the content recognition system 130 toidentify the sound recording. Various identifying fields are providedfor each reference recording including, for example, Reference ID, Date(i.e., date/time of submission), Type (audio or video), Provider (i.e.,the submitting entity), and Status (active or inactive). The entryillustrated in FIG. 4 is just one example of a metadata entry for asound recording. In other embodiments, the entries can have differentcategories, fields, data, and organizational structures.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by the contentrecognition system 130 for determining ownership information 143associated with an audio clip 141. The content recognition system 130receives 502 the audio clip 141 and generates 504 an audio fingerprint(i.e., audio ID file) representing the audio clip 141. The contentrecognition system 130 then determines 506 if the audio fingerprint forthe audio clip 141 matches a reference audio fingerprint in the audio IDdatabase 144. If an audio fingerprint match is found, a claim isgenerated 508 on behalf of the content owners of the sound recording.For an audio fingerprint match, a claim is typically generated on behalfof both the sound recording owner (typically a record label) and thecomposition owner (typically a publisher). As explained above, when anaudio fingerprint from a clip 141 matches a reference audio fingerprint,the match allows both the ownership of the sound recording and theownership of the composition that is embodied in the sound recording tobe determined.

If no audio fingerprint match is found, the content recognition system130 generates 510 a melody fingerprint representing the underlyingmelody in the audio clip 141. The content recognitions system 130 thendetermines 512 if the melody fingerprint for the input audio clip 141matches a reference melody fingerprint in the melody ID database 142. Ifa match is found, a claim is generated 514 on behalf of the contentowners of the composition that is embodied in the audio clip 141.However, since no audio ID match was found, no claim can be made onbehalf of an owner of the sound recording embodied in the audio clip141.

If neither an audio ID nor melody ID match is found, then no known matchexists 516 for the audio clip 141 in the content recognition system 130and no claims are generated.

For efficiency, when an audio ID match is found in step 506, it isgenerally unnecessary to also generate and compare melody fingerprintsin steps 510-514. Instead, once a sound recording match is detected, theunderlying composition can generally be determined from the soundrecording metadata, such as the related assets metadata 408 thatidentifies the composition that is embodied in the sound recording. Inother embodiments, the melody fingerprint can be generated in additionto the audio fingerprint, even if there is match.

In an alternative embodiment, audio and melody fingerprint matching isperformed for every input audio clip 141. In this embodiment, thestrengths of the best matching audio and melody fingerprints areconsidered in determining audio fingerprint and/or melody fingerprintmatches. For example, the confidence of an otherwise weak (lowconfidence) audio fingerprint match may be boosted if a strong (highconfidence) melody fingerprint match to the same reference soundrecording exists. In this way, an audio fingerprint match may bedetected even when the match would not have been apparent from comparingthe audio fingerprints alone. In general, weights can be applied to themetrics found for the best matching audio and melody fingerprints, anddifferent ways of combining these weighted metrics can be employed todetermine whether the best matching audio and/or melody fingerprint isconsidered a matching audio and/or melody fingerprint.

The claims generated on behalf of the content owners invoke theownership policies associated with the identified media content. FIG. 6illustrates an example of a method for carrying out ownership policiesbased on a generated claim (performed, for example, by the rightsmanagement engine 116). The rights management engine 116 identifies 602ownership policies for the media content identified by the contentrecognition system 130 by accessing the ownership information in theownership database 146. If the rights management engine 116 determines604 that 100% of the owners have requested to monetize the content, thenthe rights management engine 116 takes steps to monetize 606 the contentand to proportionately distribute revenues between the content owners.Details of the monetization policy, including revenue distribution, aretypically dictated by a licensing agreement between the media hostingservice and the one or more content owners. Typically, monetizingcontent includes streaming targeted advertisements together with theuser-requested content, and allocating at least a portion of the revenuegenerated from the advertisers for distribution to the content owners.If the rights management engine 116 instead determines 604 that lessthan 100% of the owners requested to monetize the content, the rightsmanagement engine 116 next determines 608 if at least one owner requeststo block the content. If at least one owner requests to block thecontent, the content is blocked 610. Blocking may include removing thecontent from the content database 120, or otherwise preventing a userclient 150 from accessing the content. If no owners request blocking thecontent, but at least one owner fails to request monetizing the content,the rights management engine 116 will track 612 content usage andprovide the tracking data to the owners. Tracking typically includescollecting statistics related to user requests for the content andproviding these statistics to the content owners.

FIG. 7 is a graphical interface illustrating examples of claim metadatagenerated by the rights management engine 116 in response to identifyinguploaded media content. The metadata indicates that the user-uploadedmedia content comprises footage of a live performance of “Composition inA Major.” No sound recording exactly matches the user-provided content(i.e., no audio ID match was found), but the content recognition systemnevertheless determined that the melody in the user-provided contentmatched a melody fingerprint for the known composition “Composition in AMajor.” The metadata for the generated claim includes variousinformation pertaining to the user-provided content and matchedcomposition, as well as ownership information and associated claimpolicies. The metadata illustrated in FIG. 7 is just one example of ametadata entry for a generated claim. In other embodiments, different oradditional metadata may be included.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a process for facilitating rightsmanagement services between media content owners and a media hostingservices. The syndication system 100 first presents 802 to contentowners (including, for example, a content owner A) a general option toparticipate in the rights management service. This option may bepresented, for example, via an online user interface available to thecontent owner A. The content owner A decides 804 whether or not toaccept the general option to participate in the service, and inputs thisdecision via the interface. If the owner A declines, no syndication isinvoked for the owner A. The owner A does not participate in the rightsmanagement service and the process ends 806.

Otherwise, if the content owner A agrees to participate (e.g., via theonline interface), the syndication system 100 then presents 808 to anumber of media hosting services (including, for example, a mediahosting service Z) an option to participate in the rights managementservice with the content owner A, and to other content owners who havesimilarly agreed to participate. This option may again be presented, forexample, via an online user interface available to the media hostingservice Z.

The media hosting service Z decides 810 whether or not to participatewith the content owner A. If the media hosting service Z declines toparticipate with the content owner A, then no rights management serviceis facilitated between A and Z and the process ends 812.

Otherwise, if the media hosting service Z agrees to participate withcontent owner A, the syndication system 100 presents 814 to contentowner A an option to participate with the media hosting service Z. Thecontent owner A decides 816 whether or not to participate with the mediahosting service Z. If the content owner A declines to participate withmedia hosting service Z, no rights management service is facilitatedbetween content A and media hosting service Z and the process ends 818.Otherwise, the syndication system facilitates 820 the rights managementservice between A and Z.

The process in FIG. 8 is described above only with respect to aparticular content owner A and media hosting service Z, for purposes ofexplanation; in practice, the process is repeated for any number ofcontent owner/hosting service pairs. As a result of the process, thesyndication system 100 determines pairs of content owners and mediahosting services that agree to participate with the syndication system100 and with each other.

FIG. 9 illustrated an example of an online interface 900 presented to acontent owner that allows the content owner to manage syndicationpolices with respect to various media hosting services. The “CID(Content ID) Syndication Partner” column 910 lists a number of mediahosting services that have agreed to participate with the content owner.The “URL” column 920 provides Uniform Resource Locator addresses foreach syndication partner. The “Opt-in to Syndication” checkbox 930indicates whether or not the content owner agrees to participate withthat particular hosting service (corresponding to decision block 816 inFIG. 8). For each hosting service for which the content ownerparticipates, the online interface allows the content owner to specify ausage policy 940 specific to that hosting service. For example, in theillustrated interface, the content owner can select between “GlobalDefault,” “Global Block,” and “Unspecified.” If “Global Default” isselected, the content owner's default policy (e.g., monetize, block, ortrack) is applied when content matches are found from that hostingservices. If “Global Block” is selected, content matches from thathosting service will be blocked, regardless of the owner's defaultpolicy. If “Unspecified” is selected, the applied policy for matchesfrom that hosting service is managed by an external agreement betweenthe content owner and the media hosting service, and the syndicationsystem does not facilitate the revenue sharing.

Thus, the syndication system 100 beneficially acts in conjunction withthe media hosting service 110 to identify hosted media content,determine ownership rights, and apply claim policies to enforce theownership rights for participating content owners. Additionally, thesystem benefits content owners by providing a platform to monetize theirmedia content. Finally, the system benefits the users of media hostingservices because it allows them access to an expansive library of mediacontent that is licensed for viewing.

Unlike conventional systems, the content recognition system 130beneficially utilizes melody recognition to efficiently identifycompositions embodied in hosted media content. Thus, the contentrecognition system is able to detect, for example, known compositionsthat are embodied in previously unknown or uncatalogued performances,including cover recordings and live recordings. As a result, thesyndication system 100 provides an efficient and scalable solution tothe problem of enforcing ownership rights for hosted media content.

The present invention has been described in particular detail withrespect to a limited number of embodiments. Those of skill in the artwill appreciate that the invention may additionally be practiced inother embodiments. First, the particular naming of the components,capitalization of terms, the attributes, data structures, or any otherprogramming or structural aspect is not mandatory or significant, andthe mechanisms that implement the invention or its features may havedifferent names, formats, or protocols. Furthermore, the system may beimplemented via a different combination of hardware and software fromthat described. Also, the particular division of functionality betweenthe various system components described herein is merely exemplary, andnot mandatory; functions performed by a single system component mayinstead be performed by multiple components, and functions performed bymultiple components may instead be performed by a single component.

Some portions of the above description present the feature of thepresent invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the art to mosteffectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in theart. These operations, while described functionally or logically, areunderstood to be implemented by computer programs stored in a memory andexecuted by one or more processors. Furthermore, it has also provenconvenient at times, to refer to these arrangements of operations asmodules or code devices, without loss of generality.

Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the presentdiscussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description,discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or“calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to theaction and processes of a computer system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented asphysical (electronic) quantities within the computer system memories orregisters or other such information storage, transmission or displaydevices.

Certain aspects of the present invention include process steps andinstructions described herein in the form of an algorithm. It should benoted that the process steps and instructions of the present inventioncould be embodied in software, firmware or hardware, and when embodiedin software, could be downloaded to reside on and be operated fromdifferent platforms used by real time network operating systems.

The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-opticaldisks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore,the computers referred to in the specification may include a singleprocessor or may be architectures employing multiple processor designsfor increased computing capability.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purposesystems may also be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear from the description above.

Finally, it should be noted that the language used in the specificationhas been principally selected for readability and instructionalpurposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribethe inventive subject matter. Accordingly, the disclosure of the presentinvention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scopeof the invention.

1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a rights managementservice between a media content owner and a media hosting service, themethod comprising: receiving a representation of an audio clip from amedia hosting service; generating an input melody fingerprint for theaudio clip, the input melody fingerprint representing a melody of afirst composition that is embodied in the audio clip, the melodyfingerprint being invariant to parameters used to perform or record theperformance of the composition; querying a reference database for areference melody fingerprint that matches the input melody fingerprint,each reference melody fingerprint in the reference database representinga melody of a composition that is embodied in a reference soundrecording; and if a matching reference melody fingerprint for the inputmelody fingerprint is found, determining a rights management policyassociated with the reference composition, and providing instructions tothe media hosting service for carrying out the rights management policyassociated with the reference composition.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining a mutual agreement between the mediahosting service and the media content owner to participate with eachother in the right management service.
 3. The method of claim 2, whereindetermining the mutual agreement comprises: receiving an agreement overan online interface from the media content owner to participate in therights management service; presenting to the media hosting service viathe online interface, an option to participate with the media contentowner in the rights management service; responsive to receiving from themedia hosting service via the online interface, an affirmative responseto participate with the media content owner, presenting to the mediacontent owner, an option to participate with the media hosting service;and responsive to receiving from the media content owner via the onlineinterface, an affirmative response to participate with the media hostingservice, facilitating the rights management service between the mediahosting service and the media content owner.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein providing the instructions to the media hosting service forcarrying out the rights management policy comprises: transmitting to themedia hosting service a request to block hosted media content includingthe audio clip from viewing by users of the media hosting service. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein providing the instructions to the mediahosting service for carrying out the rights management policy comprises:transmitting to the media hosting service a request to track statisticalusage of hosted media content that includes the audio clip.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein providing the instructions to the mediahosting service for carrying out the rights management policy comprises:transmitting to the media hosting service, a request to monetize usageof the audio clip in accordance with a revenue sharing agreement betweenthe media hosting service and the content owner of the matchingreference composition.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the matchingreference melody fingerprint represents a first recorded performance ofthe composition, and wherein the audio clip comprises a second recordedperformance of the composition different than the first recordedperformance.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first recordedperformance of the composition comprises a performance by a firstperformer, and wherein the second recorded performance of thecomposition comprises a performance by a second performer different thanthe first performer.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the firstrecorded performance comprises a recorded studio performance of thecomposition, and wherein the second recorded performance of thecomposition comprises a recorded live performance of the composition.10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating an audiofingerprint for the audio clip, the audio fingerprint representing asound recording embodied in the audio clip; querying the referencedatabase for a reference audio fingerprint matching the audiofingerprint, the reference audio fingerprint representing a referencesound recording; responsive to finding a matching reference audiofingerprint for the audio fingerprint in the reference database,determining a rights management policy associated with the referencesound recording; and providing an indication of the rights managementpolicy associated with the reference sound recording to the mediahosting service.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio clipcomprises an audio track of a video clip.
 12. A computer-implementedmethod for determining ownership rights to a sound recording,comprising: receiving a representation of an audio clip from a mediahosting service; generating an input audio fingerprint for the audioclip, the audio fingerprint representing a first sound recording of afirst composition that is embodied in the audio clip; querying areference database for a reference audio fingerprint that matches theinput audio fingerprint, each reference audio fingerprint in thereference database representing a sound recording that embodies acomposition; and if a matching reference audio fingerprint for the inputaudio fingerprint in the reference database is found, determining arights management policy associated with the sound recording for thematching reference audio fingerprint, and providing instructions to themedia hosting service for carrying out the rights management policyassociated with the sound recording; if a matching reference audiofingerprint for the input audio fingerprint is not found: generating aninput melody fingerprint for the audio clip, the input melodyfingerprint representing a melody of the first composition, the melodyfingerprint being invariant to parameters used to perform or record theperformance of the first composition; querying a reference database fora reference melody fingerprint that matches the input melodyfingerprint, each reference melody fingerprint in the reference databaserepresenting a melody of a composition that is embodied in a referencesound recording; and if a matching reference melody fingerprint for theinput melody fingerprint is found, determining a rights managementpolicy associated with the composition for the matching reference melodyfingerprint, and providing instructions to the media hosting service forcarrying out the rights management policy associated with the referencecomposition.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the matching referencemelody fingerprint is derived from a first recorded performance of thecomposition, and wherein the matching audio fingerprint is derived froma second recorded performance of the composition that is different fromthe first recorded performance.
 14. A system for facilitating a rightsmanagement service between a media content owner and a media hostingservice, the system comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to theprocessor, wherein the memory stores instructions operable to cause theprocessor to: receive a representation of an audio clip from a mediahosting service; generate an input melody fingerprint for the audioclip, the input melody fingerprint representing a melody of a firstcomposition that is embodied in the audio clip, the melody fingerprintbeing invariant to parameters used to perform or record the performanceof the composition; query a reference database for a reference melodyfingerprint that matches the input melody fingerprint, each referencemelody fingerprint in the reference database representing a melody of acomposition that is embodied in a reference sound recording; and if amatching reference melody fingerprint for the input melody fingerprintis found, determine a rights management policy associated with thereference composition, and provide instructions to the media hostingservice for carrying out the rights management policy associated withthe reference composition.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein thememory further stores instructions operable to cause the processor todetermine a mutual agreement between the media hosting service and themedia content owner to participate with each other in the rightmanagement service.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the instructionsstored in the memory operable to cause the processor to determine themutual agreement further comprises instructions stored in the memoryoperable to cause the processor to: receive an agreement over an onlineinterface from the media content owner to participate in the rightsmanagement service; present to the media hosting service via the onlineinterface, an option to participate with the media content owner in therights management service; responsive to receiving from the mediahosting service via the online interface, an affirmative response toparticipate with the media content owner, present to the media contentowner, an option to participate with the media hosting service; andresponsive to receiving from the media content owner via the onlineinterface, an affirmative response to participate with the media hostingservice, facilitate the rights management service between the mediahosting service and the media content owner.
 17. The system of claim 14,wherein the instructions stored in memory operable to cause theprocessor to provide the instructions to the media hosting service forcarrying out the rights management policy further comprises instructionsoperable to cause the processor to: transmit to the media hostingservice a request to block hosted media content including the audio clipfrom viewing by users of the media hosting service.
 18. The system ofclaim 14, wherein the instructions stored in memory operable to causethe processor to provide the instructions to the media hosting servicefor carrying out the rights management policy further comprisesinstructions operable to cause the processor to: transmit to the mediahosting service a request to track statistical usage of hosted mediacontent that includes the audio clip.
 19. The system of claim 14,wherein the instructions stored in memory operable to cause theprocessor to provide the instructions to the media hosting service forcarrying out the rights management policy further comprises instructionsoperable to cause the processor to: transmit to the media hostingservice, a request to monetize usage of the audio clip in accordancewith a revenue sharing agreement between the media hosting service andthe content owner of the matching reference composition.
 20. The systemof claim 14, wherein the matching reference melody fingerprintrepresents a first recorded performance of the composition, and whereinthe audio clip comprises a second recorded performance of thecomposition different than the first recorded performance.
 21. Thesystem of claim 20, wherein the first recorded performance of thecomposition comprises a performance by a first performer, and whereinthe second recorded performance of the composition comprises aperformance by a second performer different than the first performer.22. The system of claim 20, wherein the first recorded performancecomprises a recorded studio performance of the composition, and whereinthe second recorded performance of the composition comprises a recordedlive performance of the composition.
 23. The system of claim 14, whereinthe memory further stores instructions operable to cause the processorto: generate an audio fingerprint for the audio clip, the audiofingerprint representing a sound recording embodied in the audio clip;query the reference database for a reference audio fingerprint matchingthe audio fingerprint, the reference audio fingerprint representing areference sound recording; responsive to finding a matching referenceaudio fingerprint for the audio fingerprint in the reference database,determine a rights management policy associated with the reference soundrecording; and provide an indication of the rights management policyassociated with the reference sound recording to the media hostingservice.
 24. The system of claim 14, wherein the audio clip comprises anaudio track of a video clip.
 25. A system for determining ownershiprights to a sound recording, the system comprising: a processor; and amemory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores instructionsoperable to cause the processor to: receive a representation of an audioclip from a media hosting service; generate an input audio fingerprintfor the audio clip, the audio fingerprint representing a first soundrecording of a first composition that is embodied in the audio clip;query a reference database for a reference audio fingerprint thatmatches the input audio fingerprint, each reference audio fingerprint inthe reference database representing a sound recording that embodies acomposition; and if a matching reference audio fingerprint for the inputaudio fingerprint in the reference database is found, determine a rightsmanagement policy associated with the sound recording for the matchingreference audio fingerprint, and provide instructions to the mediahosting service for carrying out the rights management policy associatedwith the sound recording; if a matching reference audio fingerprint forthe input audio fingerprint is not found: generate an input melodyfingerprint for the audio clip, the input melody fingerprintrepresenting a melody of the first composition, the melody fingerprintbeing invariant to parameters used to perform or record the performanceof the first composition; query a reference database for a referencemelody fingerprint that matches the input melody fingerprint, eachreference melody fingerprint in the reference database representing amelody of a composition that is embodied in a reference sound recording;and if a matching reference melody fingerprint for the input melodyfingerprint is found, determine a rights management policy associatedwith the composition for the matching reference melody fingerprint, andprovide instructions to the media hosting service for carrying out therights management policy associated with the reference composition. 26.The system of claim 25, wherein the matching reference melodyfingerprint is derived from a first recorded performance of thecomposition, and wherein the matching audio fingerprint is derived froma second recorded performance of the composition that is different fromthe first recorded performance.